Knowth and Newgrange

Summer vacation in Ireland…as if it were meant to be, the trip came together perfectly.

Traveling with my sisters, Carmel and Una, and my niece McCaffrey, (to celebrate her college graduation,) we arrived early in Dublin at 5 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, quickly passed through customs, and claimed our luggage without a problem. Carm, who graciously took over all the driving, got us safely to our hotel in Navan with nary a scratch on the car. There, we caught a few hours’ sleep before our first adventure—a tour of Knowth and Newgrange, high on McCaffrey’s list of places to see.

Knowth and Newgrange are Neolithic passage graves located in County Meath, west of Drogheda (our mother’s birthplace) in the valley of the River Boyne. Built around 3200 BC, they are older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, and are considered some of the most important megalithic tomb structures in Europe.

First stop, Knowth, the sight of eighteen mound structures built out of alternating layers of earth and stone, and covered in grass. Knowth consists of one enormous passage tomb, known as Site 1, surrounded by seventeen smaller satellite tombs. Encircled by 127 etched “kerbstones,” Site 1 has two entrances aligned with the sun’s path—one on the east and one on the west which lead to separate burial chambers.  

Valley of the River Boyne

For conservation purposes we weren’t allowed to enter the tombs at Knowth, but were able to peer through barred entrances into the caverns of the smaller mounds, and to climb to the top of Site 1, where we had fantastic views of the surrounding valley of the River Boyne in all its glorious shades of green, and in the distance, the Wicklow Mountain Range.

Newgrange

Our second stop that day was to Newgrange, a single, exceptionally impressive passage tomb framed by ninety-seven kerbstones, and the main monument in the World Heritage Site that includes Knowth and sister site Dowth. Here, we were able to go inside, warned in advance that doing so may cause feelings of claustrophobia. The inner stone passageway is sixty-feet in length and is indeed narrow. We had to “mind our heads” and turn our bodies sideways to get to the cruciform chamber at the end where we stood under massive stacked rocks that formed the inner dome. In each of the three smaller chambers of the cruciform, large carved granite basins are where human remains and other votive offerings were discovered.

Newgrange is an engineering feat designed to align with the winter solstice sunrise through an open port at the tomb entrance, and a highlight of the tour was a simulation of the event. For a few seconds, we stood in pitch blackness while our guide narrated how the tomb was representative of a “womb” for the return of the spirits of the dead. Then, a narrow laser beam of light traveled the length of the chamber floor mimicking the sunrise.

Underground, below tons of stone, unable to see our own hands in front of our faces, at this point several of us were starting to feel claustrophobic. Needless to say, when the lights came on, we were the first to exit.

Kerbstone outside of Knowth

Renowned for the spirals, chevrons, serpentiform, and many other etchings, the kerbstones surrounding both Knowth and Newgrange were a marvel. There is no concurring meaning of the etchings, but we heard theories from our guide that some believed them to be purely decorative, or to be representative of the topography of the area, or that their meaning is symbolic. For example, the image of the “Triskelion” or Trispiral on the kerbstones and on one of the stones inside the tomb of Newgrange, might represent the birth, life, death cycle, or the spring, summer, winter cycle, or the unity of earth, water, and fire.  

Day one at Knowth and Newgrange—in a word, fascinating! Well worth the visit, and a great start to our journey.